Here Comes the Blue Titan
by taowithatemper
Summary: Tony Stark is a billionaire, genius, playboy, philanthropist. He's Stark Industries' CEO as well. What happens when you take all that and mix it in with almost a supernatural conspriracy plan, an unheard of romance, and a jumble of teammates and enemies combined? You get the Blue Titan.
1. Conspiracy

"Stark, we need you to come in."

"What do you want Coulson, I'm a little busy at the moment."

"There's a little situation and we need you to come check it out."

"Details pal, details."

"I can't tell you much over the phone, but we found something that may be related to Stark Industries."

"Fine, where?"

"I'm sending you the itinerary right now."

Great… I hate that guy. He insults me all the time and yet he always asks me to do stuff for him. I have half a mind to just tell him to screw off, seeing as he has tried multiple times to monopolize my weapons manufacturing company. He doesn't seem to understand that my millions of dollars will kick his 4 foot ass any day.

"Pepper!" I call as I throw my phone onto the sofa. "Butterfingers, get me a drink, STAT."

_Sir, I'm receiving the information for your flight now. Would you like me to review it for you?_

_ "_Yes Jarvis. Where is Ms. Potts?"

_She boarded an 8am flight to Washington this morning, sir._

"Damn how could I forget that?" I grumbled, plopping myself into my desk chair. "Let's call her shall we. Wouldn't want her to have a heart attack when she gets back and I'm not here."

_Ms. Potts has already been informed of your departure._

_ "_Seriously? She knew all about this and didn't tell me? I didn't even have the chance to defend myself. Man I really hate that guy! Call her anyway, I need to vent. And where is my drink!?"

_ Calling Ms. Potts now._

I hear a whine near the bar area from Butterfingers, my robotic assistant. A few clanks and clatters later, it brings me a tumbler containing my favorite Scotch.

"This is Ms. Pepper Potts speaking, how may I be of assistance?" my secretary answered after a few rings.

"Pepper I'm extremely disappointed. Are you conspiring against me now?" I remarked, rubbing my temples gently."

"I don't know what you're talking about, Tony."

"Please, spare me the cover up. You knew Coulson was going to call me today so you abandoned ship as soon as you could. Why would you do this to me? I thought we were on the same team."

"Tony, seriously, what are y-"

"You know I hate that man! You know that I don't want anything to do with this 'project' they're starting, and you know I have work to do that can't really wait. So remind me again why? That's all I want to know."

Pepper sighs and from the sounds of scraping from the other line she switched the phone to her other ear. "This isn't as big of a deal as you're making it out to be. SHIELD found something and they just want you to identify if it belongs to you or the company or not. Just be a good boy for once and do as they say."

Well, there's no arguing with that…

"Well Jarvis I guess we're going. Let's just get over and done with and hopefully they will never bother me again."

_Yes sir. Stark Industries flight 217 is scheduled to leave in 2 hours. Shall I arrange a car for you?_

"Nah it's cool, I have 5 of my own. Damn I don't even have Ms. Potts here to pack my bag."

_ It's already been done sir._

"Oh fantastic. Uhhh I'm guessing I'll be gone for a couple of days, so forward all calls to my out of office voice mail. It's going to take all my concentration not to hit Coulson while I'm there, let alone not trash my phone as well." I mumbled as I rounded the corner into my bedroom.

_ Yes sir. New mobile phones are not in this month's budget._

"I know what's in the budget, and that's also something I don't want to worry about right now. Two hours huh… another drink is in order." I grabbed the bag that was nicely packed on my bed and downed the last gulp of Scotch in my tumbler.

I really do have a cool assistant, maybe I should tell her that more often and she won't conspire against me like this again. I know she likes flowers, maybe I should send her some.

"Jarvis, leave some flowers for Pepper when she gets back in to New York. Just leave them anonymous though, and say thanks."

_Of course sir, but wouldn't you like to make the sentiment personal to you?_

"No, wouldn't want her to start believing I've gone soft. She'll know it's me anyway."

The sun was at prime height to light up the entire living room without too much glare from the floor to ceiling glass doors. I poured myself another drink then parked it on the sofa. Looking over at my phone, I realized I had missed a text message from Pepper.

"'Sorry.'" I read out loud. "Well crap, now I feel kinda bad. In all fairness though, she did keep a secret from me. Jarvis don't tell me you knew as well."

_ No sir, I was not informed._

"Fine. I wasn't even left anything to go over? No 'debriefing' as he calls it? No photographs?"

_It will all be ready for you in your jet._

Yep, I'm just dragging things out as much as I can. A pessimist is definitely on the list of names I've been called. Maybe I should change that. Wow, this Scotch is amazing.

"There better be Scotch there too."

Two hours later I'm on the jet going to… uh where am I going? Oh right, Manhattan. Apparently SHIELD field workers up north found a huge wreck in the ice, yet I fail to understand how this pertains to me, seeing as I didn't send much of my weapons up north. Are the eskimos trying to replicate my Jericho Missile? I haven't even released that yet… Whatever Tony, quit stressing about it and find out when you get there.

Thank god it was a short flight to Manhattan, where I was informed that I would in fact not be going any further than that. Just the site of the SHIELD logo made my spine crawl with a mash up of feelings I couldn't describe. Of course, Coulson would the one who greeted me as soon as I got off the jet, all bright and smiles and military seriousness.

"Thank you for coming Mr. Stark," he said.

"Yeah yeah. This better be good." I adjusted my tie, not looking him in the eye before I led the way to somewhere I had no idea where I was going.

"We wouldn't have brought you here if we didn't think this was of utter importance to you. Did you read everything in the debriefing folder we left for you?"

"Yes, but you left out one crucial piece of information. You didn't tell me WHAT they found, so I could immediately tell you whether or not it belonged to me so I could be on my merry way, or maybe not even come at all!" I rambled.

"That's exactly why we didn't tell you. We feared you wouldn't believe us too, but we need your hands on, up front expertise… in person."

I rolled my eyes and walked a little faster. The one thing I hated most about this man was that some freaking how, he was able to shut down my witty, sarcastic logic with his mediocre rhetoric. I wanted nothing more than to stomp on him with my words one day.

"Fine. Show me."

Coulson and his gang of cronies sped past me and detoured from the double doors ahead to a set of stairs to my right. I felt an immediate drop in the temperature as we got closer to the heavy iron door at the bottom.

"Are you locking me away in a torture chamber or something?" I mumbled, staring down the ominous door.

"Just stay with us."

Coulson passed his badge over the electronic door lock and after a series of blinks and beeps, it swung open to reveal a wide concrete passage.

Wow. What the hell could they have found that needs to be kept in a subzero concrete dungeon? Then again, this is SHIELD… they tend to overreact about the little things, and not pay enough attention to the things that actually are a big deal.

After what seemed like hours of walking with my toes growing numb from the coldness, Coulson stopped outside another pair of double doors, turned back to me, and pushed them open. Inside looked like a hospital room from something really big. There were two vertical pods at the far end of the room, both rigged to the nines with cables and tubes. The other corner housed a massive computer system with at least 10 different monitors, and a lengthy control panel. I tried to glimpse what each monitor was showing, but Coulson deterred me over to the pod farthest on my left.

"What is all this…?" I asked, finally setting eyes on a monitor that was displaying a gigantic wreckage in the remote tundra of the north. It looked like an aircraft had emergency landed in the middle of nowhere and no one was able to find it for a long time.

"I would suggest you sit down Tony," Coulson warned, pointing to a table beside the control panel.

I looked at him skeptically before slowly moving towards the chair. "There better be Scotch here."

He ignored my comment as he sat down at the table across from me. "So as you're aware," he started, "our crew has found a significant piece of evidence in the far north, and as I'm sure you've also noticed, it was an aircraft. SHIELD has no records of this aircraft, and neither does the American military. The technology and equipment the excavators are finding inside are nothing we've ever seen before, yet it seems very primitive, therefore we have reason to believe this aircraft came from a different time. 1945 to be exact. Now, the reason we asked you to come check this is out is because of something else we found inside. We found a man and woman frozen in the ice."

"That's a little creepy, why would I want to check them out?"

"We have no idea how, but these two people are still alive. The w-"

"That's even creepier."

Coulson glared at me and continued to ignore my comments. "The woman was carrying something that represented Stark Industries, likely something belonging to your father."

"If it belonged to my father, I don't want it. Were you not aware that I make MODERN weapons now, and I don't tend to linger in the past?"

"Of course I'm aware of it. Tony, we went through every bit of research we could collect from your father, and nothing we found came anywhere close to matching what this woman was carrying. It's the blue prints for a weapon that used a power source from a technology that didn't exist in his time."

"What did you do with that blue print?" I demanded, stressing the urgency. That blueprint can't get any further into SHIELD's hands… it needs to be burned and destroyed and never seen again.

"We made copies of it, and the original is still with the unidentified woman." Coulson replied calmly.

"You need to get rid of it right now. All the copies, the original… destroy them all. It belongs to me, therefore I command it."

"Oh don't worry," he interrupted with that "I'm a step ahead of you" grin on his little face, "Someone else has already surpassed this design, and created it. We believe that the faction that constructed this weapon stole the design from your father, which is why we can't find any other documents pertaining to this. We're hoping the other two artifacts we found can give us some answers once we've restored them."

I have to get into their data bases and destroy any and all copies of those blue prints, and once this woman wakes up if she ever does, I have to find out where it came from. Stark Industries does not need this riding over its head and destroying all the hard work I've put into making what it is today.

I glanced back over my shoulder at the pods in the corner behind me, wondering who it was inside of them, how the hell they were still alive, and where they came from. I stood up abruptly from the chair and hurried over to them. I read the information cards next each pod, but nothing was any use to me.

These people obviously knew my father, and maybe they were close with him, in order to have an important, possibly stolen blueprint. Is the technology that apparently didn't exist in his time the arc reactor? Son of a bitch if it is, that certainly doesn't need to be in the ingredients list of weapons…

"Show it to me," I said.

"I can't op-"

"I don't want to hear excuses. Just show me the damned blueprint.

Coulson glared at me then reached for his communicator. "Get someone from tech down here to open the pods."

I kept my eyes fixed on him, to make sure he knew I wasn't messing around.


	2. SHIELD

Okay Tony. Chill out a bit. I really don't want Coulson coming on to me. And who knows, maybe this matter really isn't as urgent as I'm making it out to be.

A couple of guys in lab coats entered the room a little while later, and didn't even glance at me as they buried themselves in working on the pods.

"Have you recovered everything from the wreckage yet?" I asked honestly.

"No, we haven't. We wanted your opinion on this item so we would know what to expect when we do recover everything else." Coulson replied. "We could have just showed you the copy of blueprint instead of going through all of this…"

"No, I want to see the original."

A few minutes later, there was a loud rush of air from the hydraulics in the pods. I whipped around to face them, and got a good look inside. There definitely was a girl in there, maybe a young woman.

Wow is she ever cute. Looks like she's wearing a mega old school airman uniform… So she was in the army. She must have known my father then.

I took a few steps closer to the pod containing this girl. One of the technicians was prying something out of her hands, the blueprint. I didn't take my eyes off her, which distracted me enough to allow the techs to hand it to me.

I tore my gaze away from the girl to skim over the unrolled paper print. I had to be rather gentle with it, for it felt like it was going to crumble in my hands.

Interesting… the entire document is mostly intact… except for the corner at the bottom missing. Judging by the relatively neat perforations, it was ripped off by a steady hand rather than pulled off or snagged. They missed the "-stries" though. Not very efficient for hiding something. This blue print is just a primitive missile that my father created for WWII… Oh I see, the back side. The random, faded ink scribbles across the page are not English. Oh, German actually. As for the design itself… Scrap the design. It's ugly. The body structure is dismal, and the barrel looks nothing like what Dad used to make. That's because… he didn't make this. "Tesseract insertion chamber?" What the hell is a Tesseract? And nowhere in this blueprint does it include an ammunition clip, so what does this thing shoot?

"This isn't mine." I concluded vaguely. I was sick of feeling Coulson's eyes trying to break into my soul.

I'm not telling this guy anything else. He can figure it out on his own. He only asked me to indicate if it belonged to Stark or not. I'm pretty sure it's not the beyond-outdated missile they're after, so the back side does not in fact belong to me.

"Do you have any idea whose it is, or why it had the Stark Industries logo on it?"

…Remember Tony, "patience is a virtue."

"No." I blurted. On second thought… "A German thief, maybe, who apparently really needed blueprint paper in order to succeed in taking over the world."

The technician yanked the print out of my hand and proceeded to replace it with the girl in the pod. I turned back just in time to see Coulson roll his eyes.

"Is there anything else at all that you can tell us about this blueprint?"

I shook my head and kept my mouth shut. Oh wait. "I would recommend you work really hard on identifying those people first."

"We already know who the man is. That's no mystery, but the woman came with no identification what we could find. These two were the only people we found on that aircraft, but in different parts of it. We don't know anything of how she got there and how she's related to the Captain." Coulson explained.

"I'm afraid to ask but, who is he?"

He motioned to the techs to open the second pod. The first thing I glimpsed was red and white stripes and a silver star on blue.

"No way. Is that…?"

"Captain America? Yeah." Coulson jumped on the name like a moth to light, and he was trying to hide his childish excited smile.

"Oh boy." That's all I could say. Things were just getting too weird for me at that point. "Am I done? Can I leave now?"

"We're coming on to something big, Stark. Don't you want to be a part of it?"

My insides cringed at the thought of hanging around SHIELD more than I was already. "Let me think about that. Yeah uh, as tempting as that sounds, no. I have a company to run. Thank you for your hospitality, but I really need to be going now."

Coulson could do nothing but nod with a hint of defeat and wave me off. With one last glance at the girl, I walked quickly out of the lab and back through the maze of hallways and doors. As soon as I was off the SHIELD premises I yanked my phone out of my pocket and called Happy.

"Tony where are you? The jet's about to take off again, let's go!"

"Do me a favor big guy, cancel that jet and get me a car." I requested.

"What? Why?" Oh Happy, his usual disgruntled, anal self.

"There's more going on in this freak show than any of those loons really know about, and I plan on being here when they figure it out. Give them two, maybe three hours and they'll be calling me back. Think I'll just hang out at the New York facility for a while."

"Let me guess, you know something they don't, and you didn't tell them did you?" Happy pondered.

"Geez you know me too well. In any case, joke's on them if they can't figure it out. Just get me the car please.

Not ten minutes later Happy pulled up beside me in my Mercedes C-Class.

"So what's going on sir?" he asked after a few minutes of silence.

"Can't tell you. Top secret." Truth.

"Well you're awfully quiet…"

"That's not uncommon when I'm thinking."

Happy shook his head and returned his attention to the road. He didn't dare try to pry any more information out of me for fear of threats of termination, which I have used on him in the past.

Stark Tower… what a glorious piece of architecture. Not my favorite place to be though, Malibu is much warmer and easier on the eyes. If I could have Stark Tower in Malibu, wow that would be absolutely perfect. Mind you the penthouse isn't anywhere near completion yet. Usually I go there just to sit in the lab surrounded by all my science toys and think of new ways to make money.

"Holy sweet Jesus what is that doing there!?" I jumped slightly when I discovered a SHIELD folder on my desk. "Why is this here?" I rounded on Happy.

"Sorry sir, I forgot to mention to you that SHIELD agents were in here looking for answers before you showed up. They didn't find anything."

"Well of course they wouldn't," I mumbled, flipping the folder open. "'Investigation Report.' And that's it? Well okay then." I tossed it into the garbage can before sitting down at the desk.

Now I remember the reason I don't like this facility too much. Lack of Jarvis. So anyway, let's recap what the hell just happened. SHIELD found a superhero and cute girl who were frozen alive since WWII. I think I got lost at that point. How are they still alive? Come on Stark there's gotta be a good reason for me to even be entertaining these thoughts. Oh right, the cute girl might have some affiliation with my father. And did I mention she's cute? So she was carrying a blueprint that SHIELD believes was stolen from my father. Well it was, technically, but the blueprint in question wasn't my father's. That's all they need to know, 'cause I sure don't want that surfacing and making a target out of me.

"Uh Tony, what are you doing?" Happy said, waving his hand in front of my face.

"Please Happy, don't interrupt me. I'm considering filing for post-traumatic stress disorder. That was a lot to take in and I need some time to make any sense out of it. As of right now, I figure I have an hour to two hours before Coulson comes crawling back to me."

"You really think he's going to do that?" Happy laughed.

"Absolutely." Actually, that was the ego talking.

I didn't have to look at Happy to know that he doubted my theories.

That's fine, he wouldn't understand anyway. No one would. Now to think of a way to blow a couple hours… Damnit I can't get that girl out of my mind! Maybe for once in my life I shouldn't be a shallow prick by thinking that just because she's cute. ANYWAY…

Drink. Scotch. Now.

"I need a drink," I mumbled into my hand, resting my elbows on the desk. Happy, the good man that he was, understood and was off right away.

My office is pretty awesome. It's right underneath my private lab, so there's no noise from above. The view is nice too. I could actually just sit there and watch everything happening in the streets below all day, picking out all the nice cars, nice women, street fights. This is New York after all. The best place to get drunk at night really.

Oh geez that's my phone… probably Coulson, but it hasn't even been an hour yet…

"I haven't even been gone an hour Coulson. Miss me yet?" I didn't even look at the call display before flipping the phone open.

"It's me, Tony…"

"Of course it's you Pepper, I can… _feel_ you rolling your eyes through the phone." I laughed, feeling a little silly at my blunder.

"How did it go at SHIELD?" Pepper avoided my joke.

"Can't tell you. Top secret." I repeated.

"You don't have to go through that with me. I already know everything."

I sighed and nodded acknowledgement to Happy as he placed my drink down on the desk. I raised it to my nose and breathed in the sweet, succulent aroma of my favorite, oldest scotch. "It's not mine. Plain and simple," I replied after taking a swig.

"Well, what else do you know about it?" Pepper was starting to get angry at me.

"Nothing. I've never seen that design before in my life." I figured I should give her a little something to keep the rage from emerging.

"Well okay then… I'll see you when you get back. I take it you're staying in New York for a while?" Oh good, she changed the subject for me.

"Mmmyeah, I'm rather enjoying the scotch right now. I'm not in any rush, are you?" I asked, gulping more scotch.

"Well, given that you have a board of directors meeting tomorrow morning, yeah I would say –"

"Relax, that's not til tomorrow morning."

"-that you should be back tonight."

"Yeah yeah, I'll see you tomorrow." I flipped the phone shut before she could get another word in.

My eyes strayed to the television screen across the room where whatsherpickle was verbally distributing the daily news.

Why hasn't it occurred to me until just now that the finding of this wreckage wasn't on the news…? You'd think something huge like that would be. I guess SHIELD got to it first and is trying to keep it undercover. I guess this shouldn't surprise me.

"Tony? What are you doing here?"

That voice sounds familiar.

"Rhodey! What's up buddy? I'm here on uh… client visit…" I lied.

Rhodey smirked from the doorway of my office and raised an eyebrow at me. "Client visit? Since when do you visit clients?"

Busted. "I… don't, but this was a very unfortunate circumstance. You know, things blowing up and people getting… hurt." I was trying so hard not to laugh.

Yeah, Rhodey doesn't buy it, but he also knows me well enough not to ask questions.

"Alright Tony. Nice seeing you man. I gotta get going," he said with a wave before walking away.

Even Rhodey doesn't know. He's a Lieutenant Colonel in the weapons development division. Huh… SHIELD hasn't even told the Military. Ah-hh that would be my phone again.

"Pepper, Coulson, Obie, whoever it is… what's up?"

"Stark, it's me. I need to talk to you right now, and this is urgent."

Totally called it. Let's drink.

"Whatever could it be that's SO urgent?" I asked him, lifting my feet up onto my desk.

"We managed to recover a document that had this girl's picture on it. Unfortunately her identification was torn off the document, but she was in the same regiment as your father was, and we have reason to believe that they were in fact very well acquainted."

"Uh huh… so you had to call me and tell me that?"

"There's one other thing. She's waking up."


	3. Celya

"That's great, I guess?"

"Her vitals are becoming normal and she's showing signs of minor movement. We may be able to get more answers from her soon." Coulson continued.

Whoa, back that train up. The girl in the pod… is regaining consciousness?

"Wait… what…?" I stuttered. "Has it never occurred to you how this is even physically possible that these two people are still alive? You haven't once mentioned to me- you know what, screw it. I'll be right there."

I can't believe I'm doing this… One of these days I will learn probably the hard way why I care so much about all this.

"What's going on?" Happy said as he followed me quickly out the door.

"Coulson needs me, that's what. Listen, I need you to cancel that meeting tomorrow or at least get Obie to take some notes for me. I'm going to be a bit tied up, it seems." I rambled.

"Oh yeah, that'll go down really well…" Happy scoffed.

"Sure will. Get it done."

Happy and I parted ways at the elevator after he handed me the keys to my car with a regretful "you fool" expression.

I came to learn that it had started to rain as I walked out to the car. Without the sporadic breaks of clouds and sun rays in the sky the dark horizon seemed much bigger, like it just stretched on forever. I'd never noticed that about rain showers, ever. Or maybe that was just my overactive brain at work again.

I turned the music up really loud during the drive back to the SHIELD headquarters, hoping it would distract me from thinking about the situation over and over.

Yeah, not working. I guess this jumble of thoughts and emotions could be described as intrigue, or curiosity. I want to know how these people got turned into human icicles and how they're still alive, I want to know why they are so hot on SHIELD's radar, and most importantly I want to know how they were affiliated with my father. So yeah, once again I am in this solely for myself rather than for the benefit of SHIELD. No shame there.

I entered the building again with no interruptions. The guards knew full well who I was and let me in with no question

Terrible security measures for a high security operation, in my opinion.

They even showed me back to the research lab, which was by then teeming with guys in lab coats rushing all around and shouting at each other. I delved through the madness and found Coulson, who was observing anxiously from the far side of the table.

"What's happening?" I asked, scratching my head.

"The technicians and physicians are getting ready to move the girl out of the incubator. Her vitals have stabilized to the point she doesn't need sustenance. It's only a matter of time until she becomes fully conscious," he explained.  
"That was fast."

"Listen Stark. I'm making an urgent request on behalf of SHIELD. There's a lot going on with these two people that we haven't been able to discover yet. This girl in particular may be a valuable asset to you, so we're offering you the chance to take her into your personal care. We believe it's in her best interests if-"

"You want me to take care of this girl who's been frozen on ice for 70 years? Come on I can barely take care of myself," I laughed, convincing myself that he wasn't serious.

"I think it would be better for her if she wasn't exposed to all of this immediately after she wakes up. Consider this. She was born and raised in a time where all of this technology didn't exist. It could be a fatal shock to her if this was the first thing she saw after sleeping for 70 years. The adjustment is going to be hard enough on her as it is. Let's try and make it as… _kind_ as possible for her."

I pondered that for a moment as I continued to watch the scientists bumble in their frenzy. "So you want me to be a babysitter?"

"No, we want you to be a helper. Help-her."

Well, I could use the expenses as a tax write off, or be reimbursed altogether. I'd have probably interesting company, other than Happy and Obie and Pepper. She might be an excellent research assistant/source. I guess there could be some decent benefits to this.

"Alright, what are your terms?" I stipulated.

"You will keep her physically healthy, provide her with unconditional hospitality, which means she is not one of your employees, and you will not disclose anything regarding her to the press or the outside world. If anyone asks you who she is you tell them she is your long lost cousin. Please don't try to feed her everything that's going on in one mouthful. Ease her into her new living arrangements, but make sure she knows why she's where she is. She will almost definitely have questions for you, you are allowed to answer whatever she asks you about SHIELD in an honest manner. Once she is comfortable, she will return to our custody and relay her information to us. Understood?"

Blah blah blah. "Yes… sir?"

"We will transport her and yourself back to your Malibu estate on our helicopter as soon as she's ready. Oh and by the way, SHIELD will be monitoring you while she is in your care."

"Of course you will…" I said sarcastically. "I have to say though, this will be really awkward. I don't even know her name. 'Oh hi, you were sent to live with me for a while, I don't know anything about you, but apparently you know my Dad.' Great conversation starter, don't you think?"

"Her name is Celya, but that's all we know." Coulson replied.

"Uh huh… and what if I was to change my mind and say no to this?"

"You don't have a choice!" He flashed a quick "hah hah" smile before moving toward the chaos. I grumbled and glared at his retreating back.

The way I figure it, I just got volun-told to take in this girl. Maybe it won't be such a bad thing, mind you I do have a company to run and a Pepper to keep happy. I'll make sure to mention the giant bottle of really old, expensive scotch he owes me now.

Phone calls…

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and dialed Happy's number.

"Tony? Where are you what's going on?" he babbled as soon as he picked up.

"Humor me for a moment, will you?" I sighed.

"What do you-"

"Get down here. I need you." I flipped the phone shut again when I noticed one of the lab coated guys staring at me from across the room.

I sat down at the table after a while of Coulson not coming back. There was nothing I could do but sit there and twiddle my thumbs. I pretty sure I was going to end up scalping myself from continuously running my fingers through my hair nervously.

"Stark!" someone bellowed from behind me after what seemed like hours.

I turned around to find a confused Happy trying to detach himself from a security officer, who let him go after I beckoned him to me.

"Tony what the hell is going on?" he hissed in my ear as soon as he was within reach.

"Uh long story short, I've just become Coulson's bitch," I replied shortly.

He looked from the mass of white coats then back at me, and shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah, what else is new?

The most dramatic eye roll I could muster indicated that I had not taken his comment well. "I could ask them to escort you out. Then you'd miss the ride they're giving us back to Malibu and be left to find your own way back. Is that what you want?" I threatened.

"No…" Obviously he didn't get my joke. "Wait, why is SHIELD flying us back to Malibu?"

"Don't ask questions, just grin and bear it. Oh, she's coming with us too." I cocked my head toward the roundup of scientists at the open incubator.

"W-what…?"

"Don't worry about it. I'll tell you later.

Happy gave up and fell silent as I sat back in my chair and watched the scene in front of me unfold. It literally took an hour or so for the scientists and technicians to prepare the girl for transportation. With strong disdain I watched as the blueprint was taken from her again and sent off somewhere deep within the ominous SHIELD cavern.

In the procession line to the chopper, I was stopped by Coulson grabbing my shoulder.

"Try and learn something," he said. "If you need anything, you know where to find me and how to get ahold of me."

"Unfortunately yes," I replied, pushing on my sunglasses.

"Remember Stark, we're watching you."

I threw peace signs above my head at him as I followed Happy into the chopper.

Oh boy. I think Pepper's going to have a stroke or something when she sees this. Her job of taking care of me is stressful enough… let alone throw this girl-out-of-time into the mix. Honestly though, I really don't know what to expect. There's so many different ways this could end up going… although I think it's safe to assume that no matter which direction, there's a major meltdown just waiting to happen. From all parties involved.

I came to the decision that it might have been a good idea to take the flight time to think of a good way to convince Pepper that this whole situation would be a good idea. It seemed to be a rather unsuccessful operation.

There she was, waiting for me at the airport just outside of Malibu. Coulson must have informed her of our completely skewed circumstances of return.

Thank god for that, now I don't have to try and explain everything to her and fall victim to the Pepper rage. She's probably worry that I will corrupt Celya, or that she wouldn't do a good enough job guiding her, or that her hospitality wouldn't be enough… I suppose I will in fact have to convince Pepper that it's not part of her job description to do all those things. Overall she just worries too much about too many things.

"Well this is certainly a strange turn of events," she said as I stepped off the chopper.

I looked from her to the technicians unloading the stretcher then back to her again. "We could use a bit of… change… around here. Spruce up the place a bit, wouldn't you say?"

"Maybe, but this drastically? I didn't even have time to make any preparations for our guest or-"

"We haven't even made it back to the manor and you're already getting worked up about it. Preparations, not your job. That's my job."

"Well, you're not historically noted for doing your job all of the time are you?" she said with a smirk.

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that. But actually, I'm very serious about this. You do enough for me as it is. There's no way I could possibly ask you to do it for another person."

"No, you just don't want to pay me more to do it."

Damn that woman's good…

"Touche," I joked. "No uh, these notions are just hard to… explain, so don't ask me to try."

"Just get in the car, Tony."

I cringed at her ferociousness as I did what I was told. I can't for the life of me figure out what, but there's just something about Pepper Potts that I can't say "no" to.

Two vans and a car later, everything was unloaded once again into my Malibu manor. The guest room which, let's face it, I never had guests, was the best place I had to accommodate the sleeping girl until she fully gained consciousness. I figured we could wing it and see where things went as they happened.

"You should probably keep an eye on her until she wakes up," Pepper suggested discreetly.

I agreed without hesitation and took myself and my tablet to the bedroom. I sat next to her bed, not really paying attention to anything in particular.

The sound of a tiny whimper drew my attention back to her, and soon after her eyes fluttered open, revealing two sparkling, sky blue irises. It took a moment for her to adjust to the bright light, but she gasped in surprise when she did.

"H-howard?"


	4. I'd Like To Meet This Jarvis!

Good god, she just called me my father. That doesn't strike "awesome" in my books, but I'll cut her some slack.

I shook my head and tried not to laugh at her. "Sorry sweets, I'm not Howard."

She sat up, her eyes glued to me, and I realized that she did not in fact have two blue eyes, but one green one and one blue one.

"Then who are you…?" she asked skeptically, her golden blonde hair falling over her shoulders.

"I'm Tony, Howard's son."

Her face scrunched up in bewilderment, and she looked away from me to consider what I had just said. "But… Howard doesn't have a son…"

"Sorry to burst your bubble lady, (Celya, isn't it?) but in this day and age, he certainly does." I could tell the stress and shock were wearing on her already.

"Well, where is Howard? I need him! He's the one who found us, isn't he? Did he find the cube?" she rambled.

This feels almost like a soap opera. Should I lay it on her nicely, or say it all straight up?

"Uh yeah, about that…" I sighed and rubbed my forehead. "My father's been dead for a few years now…"

"W-what… are you talking about? I just saw him! Yesterday maybe! I-I don't know how long I've been out for b-but-"

I shifted nervously as tears started to roll down her pale cheeks. "It's been a long time, let's just say that. I have no clue who found you, and I have no clue what this 'cube' is."

Celya continued to stare at me for moment before she pulled her knees up to her chest and hid her face from me. "What's going on?" Her sobs came muffled by her legs.

I noticed then, the curious blue dots that came three at a time on her calves, thighs, forearms and biceps, and her neck.

Oh geez, what do I do now? I am not exactly traditionally known for being skilled at calming upset people down. I might get some… funny looks if I tried. Coulson said "ease her into it." Well how the hell do I do that? This isn't an easy situation.

_Sir, Ms. Potts is on the-_

"Mute." Dammit Jarvis, you scared her.

"What was that?" she stuttered, looking at me with wide, watery eyes.

"That's just… Jarvis… don't mind that," I mumbled. "Uhhh could you please excuse me for a moment?" I flashed a quick smile and stepped out of the room as I slipped my phone out of my pocket.

**Celya Rogers:**

My eyes followed this man out of the room, this man who was the spitting image of Howard. Everything that had just happened suddenly came back to me like a rush of bad smells. The jet, the crash, the experiments… Right before I woke up I dreamed of people, a LOT of people around me all yelling and babbling in words I couldn't understand. Then there was a helicopter and the Howard-lookalike was there. They said I was in Malibu, but I recognized nothing.

So many questions, so many strange things. Are all these people lying to me? How can Howard have a… wait a second… son… dead for a few years…

Oh my god. No. NO!

My heart began to race painfully as I flung the blanket off of myself and bolted out of the room. I ran past Howard's son, who was talking into a radio of some sort. He turned around abruptly and stared at me in confusion. His lips started moving but I couldn't hear anything over the loud beating of my heart.

Wait, that can't be a radio… Where the hell am I?

I took off running again, trying to find a real radio, or a newspaper.

Everything just seemed so loud, humming and ringing and roaring, but where was it coming from?

I skidded around a corner and came to a wide, open, bright room. There were couches of neat, squarey, plain sorts in this room, but everything just looked so, sharp and classy. Nothing like I had ever seen before. I spotted a book on the table, and picked it up.

"2007…?" I read out loud.

Is this a joke…? Did the enemy capture us, and this is their way of torturing us? What a sick sense of humor.

I left this room and went in search of another. The next room I came to looked like a kitchen, but the wall was gone. From the hallway I could see the ocean around the entire area. I walked over to the edge, and came to learn it was all glass. I turned back, my breath short in my throat. I felt like I was in some kind of futuristic dream. The machines around me were all made of shining metal, but I had no idea what any of them were.

I left that intimidating room and made my way to another. There was a long, rounded couch in there, and more floor to ceiling glass windows. To my left was a stair case that seems to spiral downwards, and a… waterfall? There was a waterfall inside the room. Behind me and to my right there was a flat, square panel on the wall, with a moving picture. The woman on the picture was talking, and sound was coming from it somehow.

"Weapons industry guru Tony Stark will be hosting a corporate open house next week, on Thursday November 22, 2007."

I looked around the room desperately for some kind of logic, but nothing made any sense. My throat was tightening trying to hold back the sobs, but I couldn't contain it any longer. I screamed in frustration and dropped to my knees.

"Celya?" Footsteps followed the calling of my name. "Celya let's go- What's wrong?"

I let my hands fall to the carpeted floor and I looked up to find Tony standing over me. "What year is it…?"

He sighed and offered his hand to me. After pulling me up he sat me down on the couch and handed me a hot mug. "Hope you like Early Grey," he murmured.

With a shaking hand I took the steaming mug and raised it to my nose. It was in fact Earl Grey, my favorite kind of tea. At least that was somewhat familiar. "I get it now," I whispered. "I've been asleep for over 60 years, but how is that even possible?"

"That's a good question. I want to know the same thing. All I know is you and your little buddy were frozen on ice for those 60 years."

"Steve?" I gasped. "So he survived too… thank god. "The last thing I remember is him saying he was going to crash land the jet in the water… There was a missile heading straight for Brooklyn, where we grew up. That was the only thing he could do… Where is Steve?" I demanded.

"He's still in the lab where you were being taken care of before you came here. He's safe," Tony replied sincerely.

I nodded and took another sip of tea. "I guess I have missed a few things…" I concluded with a smile. "But, why am I here? Why didn't I stay with Steve?"

Tony averted his gaze from me and lowered his head. "Well, it was from my understanding that, the organization that found you knows nothing about you. There's nothing to identify you with, and of course your buddy is still unconscious too. You were found carrying a blue print that SHIELD thought belonged to me… but actually… didn't, so that's how I got involved in all this. The organization was only able to conclude that you were closely acquainted with my father, which is why they sent you to me."

"What does that accomplish? No offense…" I wondered.

"None taken. I don't know. They want me to ease you into this new world until you're ready to go back to SHIELD and give them all the answers they want."

I turned my head sharply and raised an eyebrow at him. "What?"

Tony raised his hands in the air. "Hey, they told me I could answer any question you had with complete honesty, and that's my honesty."

"So what do you get out of all this?" That was the question that was nagging in the back of my mind. If I knew anything about Howard, he always seemed to expect a benefit out of everything he did, even if it wasn't always a selfish benefit.

"They said I _could_ answer any questions with honestly, doesn't mean I _will_," Tony retorted. "I would imagine you have lots of those."

I agreed silently and twiddled my thumbs. My skin was freakishly pasty, almost blueish.

I guess that would be normal for being… frozen… for 60 years. Not to mention it's kind of cold and I'm wearing only shorts and a tank top.

"You know," Tony said, leaning back on the couch and running his fingers through his wavy dark brown hair, "I kinda expected a much worse reaction. You know, much screaming and shouting, throwing things maybe, beating the stuffing out of me… I mean, you only really threw one temper tantrum, that I can deal with. Just please, whatever you do, do NOT touch the cars."

I laughed again and looked into his dark brown eyes. "I'm alive, that really all that matters. Even the world I lived in before all this was constantly changing. So my little accident sped up the process. I don't think I have anything to fear, not after all I've been through anyway. Maybe I'm even a little excited."

"Uh huh…" he grunted.

I stood up then and walked over to the huge window. The ocean below was beautiful.

I've never seen the ocean before either. Well, Howard had flown over it with me before, but that doesn't count. Yeah, I was definitely excited by this point. I was scared, upset, and confused not even an hour ago, but this won't be so bad. There's so much to learn! What is this box on the wall with the moving picture? Is Tony Stark anything like Howard Stark? I hope Steve won't take this terribly… The last time I was conscious, the world was in the middle of war and chaos. I see none of that now, not at first glance anyway. In a way I suppose it was nice of this… SHIELD organization to send me to Tony. He is a lot like his father, and I guess I take comfort in that. I can only hope he'll guide me in exploring and learning this new world.

"Well, there's a lot to do, isn't there?" I said, turning back to Tony, who was watching me with great interest. "I can tell there's a lot you want to know."

"Yeah. I make it a point to just… know things."

_Sir, Agent Coulson is on the line._

That voice again! Where is it coming from?

Tony sighed and closed his eyes in frustration as I jumped nearly a foot in the air.

"Jarvis I told you to keep quiet. You're scaring Celya…" he grumbled.

_My apologies, but he was really quite insistant._

"Alright, put him through…" he agreed with a roll of his eyes/

"Stark, what's going on? Is everything okay?"

Ahh… more bodiless voices…

"Yes Coulson…everything is fine… would you mind calling me back some other time please… actually don't bother, I'll call you, maybe," Tony said.

"Is Celya okay?"

My eyes darted to Tony. "That's my name… where is it coming from?" I whispered to him.

"Celya, will you please tell Mr. Spazzy over here that you're okay?" he rounded on me.

"W-what?"

"Yes Coulson… she's fine…" Tony said loudly. "Like I said, I'll call you back later. End call."

I looked all around the room trying to find where the voices might be coming from. "What was that…?" I whispered.

Tony smiled and relaxed again. "Uhh it's Jarvis. He runs my house," he replied casually.

"Well… you can invite him inside… I'd like to meet this Jarvis!"

He snorted and covered his face with his hand. "Jarvis is a computer program, sweetheart. Not to mention, he's also a little anti-social."

No words could escape me then. My mind was trying to process all that had just happened in those 3 minutes and doing a terrible job. "Yeah… this is too much.'


End file.
